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A70206 A sermon on Acts xxviii, 22 shewing, that the Christian religion is not a sect, and yet that it is every where spoken against / by Matthew Henry ... Henry, Matthew, 1662-1714. 1699 (1699) Wing H1476; ESTC R19814 33,478 57

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dare not speak out that there is no God Psal 14.1 And he that saith there is no God wisheth there were none and if he could help it there should be none Others Blaspheme the Attributes of God that charge the All-seeing Eye with Blindness saying The Lord shall not see Psal 94.7 that charge the Eternal Mind with Forgetfulness saying God hath forgotten Psal 10.11 that charge the Almighty Arm with Impotency saying Can God furnish a Table in the Wilderness which is there call'd speaking against God Psal 78.19 20. Those speak against God that promise themselves Impunity in Sin saying They shall not surely die and God will not require it And those that boldly allow their Impiety and Irreligion saying unto the Almighty Depart from us Job 21.14 15. Some speak meanly of God tho' He is infinitely Great and Glorious others speak hardly of Him tho' he is infinitely Just and Good The Name of God is spoken against by the profane using of it so it is construed Psal 139.20 They speak against thee wickedly thine Enemies take thy Name in vain Can there be a greater slight put upon the Eternal God than for Men to use his Sacred and Blessed Name as a By-word with which they give vent to their exorbitant Passions or fill up the vacancies of their other Idle-words The Name of God is thus abus'd not only by those that belch out bloody Oaths and Curses which make the Ears of every good Man to tingle but by those that mention the Name of God slightly and irreverently in their common Conversation in whose mouths he is near when he is far from their reins To use those forms of speech which properly signify an Acknowledgment and Adoration of God's Being as O God or O Lord or an Appeal to his Omniscience as God knows or an Invocation of his Favour as God bless me or God be merciful to me I say to use these or the like expressions impertinently and intending thereby to express only our wonder our surprize or our passionate resentments or any thing than that which is their proper and awful signification is an evidence of a vain mind that wants a due regard to that glorious and fearful Name The Lord our God I see not that the Profanation of the Ordinance of Praying is any better than the Profanation of the Ordinance of Swearing The serious consideration of this I hope might prevent much of that Dishonour which is done to God and to his Holy Name by some that run not with others to an excess of Riot The Providence of God is likewise every where spoken against by Murmurers and Complainers that quarrel with it and find fault with the disposals of it and when they are hardly bestead curse their King and their God Thus is the mouth of the ungodly set against the Heavens and their Tongue walketh through the Earth 3. The Word of God the great Rule of our Religion is every where spoken against so it was when it was first preached wherever the Apostles went preaching the Doctrine of Christ they met with those that spake against it contradicting and blaspheming Acts 13.45 So it is now it is written Atheists speak against the Scriptures as not of Authority Papists speak against it as dark and uncertain further than it is expounded and supported by the Authority of their Church which receives unwritten Traditions pari pietatis affectu ac reverentiâ with the same pious affection and reverence that they receive the Scripture nay and if we may judge by their practice with much more Thus is the Word of God blasphemed by them who call themselves the Temple of the Lord. But if we take away Revelation as the Deists do all Religion will soon be lost and if we derogate from the Scriptures as the Papists do all Revelation is much endangered Those also speak against the Scriptures who profanely Jest with them and that they may the more securely Rebel against Scripture Laws make themselves and their idle Companions merry with the Scripture Language The Word of the Lord is unto them a reproach as the Prophet complains Jer. 6.10 And another Prophet found it so whose serious word of the necessity of Precept upon Precept was turned into an idle Song as Grotius understands it Isa 28.13 The word of the Lord was unto them Precept upon Precept Very likely it was done by the Drunkards of Ephraim spoken of v. 1. and it gave occasion to that Caution v. 22. Be ye not mockers lest your Bands be made strong Profligate and Debauched Minds relish no wit like that which ridicules the Sacred Text and exposeth that to Contempt As of old the insulting Babilonians must be humour'd with the Songs of Sion and no Cups can please Belshazzar in his drunken Frollick but the Sacred Vessels of the Temple Thus industrious are the Powers of Darkness to Vilify the Scriptures and to make them contemptible but he that sits in Heaven shall laugh at them for in spite of all the little efforts of their impotent Malice He will magnifie the Law and make it honourable according to the word which he hath spoken Isa 42.21 4. The People of God the Professors of this Religion are every where spoken against Not only those of some particular Perswasion or Denomination but without regard to that such as have been zealous in fearing God and working Righteousness have been in many places very much spoken against Our Blessed Saviour hath told his Disciples what Treatment of this kind they must expect that they should be revil'd and have all manner of evil said against them falsly Mat. 5.11 12. that they and their Names should be cast out as evil Luke 6.22 And if they called our Master Belzebub no nick-names fastned upon his Followers can seem strange Mat. 5.25 Mocking was an old way of persecuting the Covenant-Seed for thus He that was after the Flesh betimes persecuted them that were after the Spirit Compare Gen. 21.9 with Gal. 4.29 God's Heritage hath always been as a speckled Bird that all the Birds are against Jer. 12.9 And his Children for signs and for wonders in Israel that every one hath a saying to Isa 8.18 Even Wisdoms Children have been call'd and counted Fools and their life Madness The Quiet in the Land represented as Enemies to the Publick Peace And those who are the greatest Blessings of the Age branded as the Troublers of Israel The Primitive Christians were painted out to the World under the blackest and most odious Characters that could be as Men of the most profligate Lives and Consciences and that even placed their Religion in the grossest Impieties and Immoralities imaginable Their Enemies found it necessary for the support of the Kingdom of the Devil the Father of Lies and Slanders fortiter Calumniari to Characterize them as the worst of Men to whom they were resolv'd to give the worst and most barbarous Treatment It had